Another day, another moment of watching and reporting to Sehun for ZiTao. As far as he was concerned, Taehyung wasn’t doing anything he shouldn’t. He went to class, practiced his magic and fighting while having a good time with his friends, his Matoki friends. That was what bothered most of the Exotytes the most but at the same time, none of them would so much as look his way during their Exotyte only classes either.

Lunchtime finally arrived and as usual, Sehun was glaring at Taehyung’s table of Matoki friends.

“You know, the more you glare at them you’re gonna bore a hole into them.” Kyungsoo spoke up.

“If I could, I would honestly.” Sehun didn’t even face him. He looks over at Tao who was silently eating his lunch and smirked. “Tao, go on and sit with Taehyung from now on at lunch. I told you to follow him at all times.”

“Seriously? I don’t think he would say anything special at lunch.” He really didn’t want to keep spying on him but he knew that wasn’t an option either. He spotted Wendy’s sly smile and sighed. “Fine. But Wendy, I’m going to freeze time around me at some point so don’t be too surprised when you can’t hear my thoughts anymore.”

“What are you planning?” Sehun raised a brow.

“To get the answers you want out of him without all this sneaking around. Sometimes I just want time to myself without my powers. If he has nothing to say I’ll let you know.” With that, Tao got up and trekked over to Taehyung’s table, tray in hand. Everyone looked up at him curiously, except for Taehyung.

“What do you want?” He was blunt with Tao but it didn’t phase him as he sat next to him. “Still need to talk to me?”

“I told you yesterday, I don’t think it’s fair that no other Exotyte will speak to you because of Sehun. He’s been glaring at you every day.” Everyone at the table stayed silent as he spoke but a few turned to look over at Sehun, who was indeed glaring at their table.

“Why does he even care about Taehyung so much?” Jimin asked. A few of the other Matoki were already apprehensive of Tao’s presence at the table.

Tao took a deep breath before he told their childhood story from his view. “Ever since I’ve known Sehun, he’s just been a bully. Typical like taking his lunch, making him do his homework and take his notes when he didn’t want to go to class. He was mean to Taehyung the moment they met.”

“I like to think it was because I didn’t have magic until I was 14.” Taehyung interjected.

“Well, that’s what kept him bullying you. Powers mean a lot for us and you know it.”

“Doesn’t make what he did any better.” Bobby pointed out. “We have our own bullies that we deal with even on Mato but we don’t have magic to parade around for pride or otherwise like he does.”

Taehyung and Tao shared a look. “It doesn’t help when he has a pretty strong power over air. He could take all of our breaths away if he wanted. That alone keeps most of the Exotytes from doing anything he doesn’t like.”

Tao didn’t need to be a mind reader to tell that the entire table was no longer comfortable with the topic. That was his opening to freeze time around himself and Taehyung.

“Really? Now you want to freeze everything.” Taehyung scoffed, crossing his arms.

“I don’t have much time to do this unless you want us both to be stuck outside of time and I’m going to say this once. Sehun has me following you around because he doesn’t understand why you’re only friends with Matoki.”

“I think it’s pretty obvious. Nobody will talk to me because of him. You know this. I know this. What kind of question is this?”

“I heard you were talking to find out the roommate partners for the summit. He wants to know if you’re hiding anything.”

Taehyung looked at Tao in shock. He knew that if he told him the truth, Wendy would read his mind once they stepped back into time. “Wait...why isn’t he just using Wendy?”

“Sehun likes to play mob boss, let’s not act like this is anything surprising. I’m sure he’s going to use Wendy soon if you don’t tell me anything. I’m trying to avoid that by just telling you.” Tao looked down at his watch. “We don’t have much time, maybe 2 more minutes.”

“I can’t tell you anything because there’s nothing to hide.”

Tao stared at him for a heartbeat. “Fine. Don’t tell me. I warned you.”

“Warning understood.”

“And Sehun doesn’t want you to talk to his father, but I’m sure you know that.”

Taehyung just looked straight ahead, ready to go back into the normal flow of time. Tao unfroze time and glanced over at Sehun’s table. He nodded and began to speak with everyone else at their table.

“That dude is really messed up.” Jimin said plainly. “But enough about that. Since you grew up with our TaeTae, I’m sure you have some good stories about him. He won’t tell us much of anything.”

“There’s nothing to tell!” Taehyung laughed and playfully smacked his arm.

“I refuse to believe that.” Another Matoki said. “But before we say another word, what’s your name again?”

“Huang ZiTao, my friends call me Tao.”

“Namjoon.”

“Hoseok.”<